Wisconsin Badgers recruiting: football and basketball updates [UPDATE]

Recruiting is the lifeblood of any major college athletics team, but following it closely as a fan can sometimes be difficult and can often be time consuming. We’ll try and condense all the recruiting news you can use into this bi-weekly post. It’ll include updates on current commits, including stats from their high school games, as well as news on players the Badgers are still pursuing. Let’s get down to business!

Football visits and top-10 lists

• Some of the top 2021 prospects are starting to whittle their lists down and the Badgers made the top-10 for 2021 4-star RB Evan Pryor (Cornelius, N.C.).

As you can see, the top teams in the country are all in on Pryor, including all four teams that were in the first college football playoff rankings and the presumed favorite to land Pryor, Georgia.

The Badgers would obviously have to put in a lot of work here but it is promising to see players of this caliber interested in Wisconsin.

• With only two home games left in the 2019 season, the Badgers will be seeing a host of visitors on campus this weekend and then again against Purdue in two weeks. 2021 4-star DT/OT Rocco Spindler (Clarkston, Mich.) will be in Madison for the game against Iowa.

Spindler is seen as a Michigan lean right now, but has offers from Michigan State, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Alabama, LSU, Penn State, Florida, Nebraska and others. The 6-foot-5 and 285 pound lineman is the No. 40 ranked player in the nation according to the 247 Composite.

• 2022 in-state WR Jerry Cross (Milwaukee) will be back in Madison for another visit. 6-foot-6 wideouts don’t grow on trees and it is nice to have one in Wisconsin’s backyard.

• 2021 3-star WR Jaylin Noel (Kansas City, Mo.) will be taking in the sights and sounds of Wisconsin game day this weekend. Noel doesn’t have an offer yet from the Badgers, but there is mutual interest.

Noel has visited Minnesota and has received offers from the Gophers, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State and South Dakota State. Perhaps an offer will come this weekend for the 5-foot-11 wideout?

• 2020 4-star LB/RB Len’Neth Whitehead (Athens, Ga.) will be on campus for an official visit this weekend.

Whitehead is down to Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and the Badgers as his final four choices. He seems to be the Gamecocks’ to lose but with the Badgers getting the hammer of the final official visit, they can’t be counted out just yet.

Wisconsin wants Whitehead to play RB while, if he attends USC, he’ll decide whether to play RB or LB once he gets to campus. He plans on announcing his decision next week.

UPDATE Friday 6:02 a.m. CT: Welp!

• 2020 4-star RB Jalen Berger (Ramsey, N.J.) was a late addition to the Badgers recruiting radar, but Wisconsin has quickly put themselves in the thick of things with Berger’s decision. He’ll be on campus this weekend for an official visit, his first, and hopefully fellow New Jersey native Jonathan Taylor runs for 200+ yards in a Badgers win.

Wisconsin will also be honoring New Jersey native and Badgers legend Ron Dayne during the game. Literally couldn’t be a more perfect weekend for Berger to be on campus.

LSU, Penn State and Rutgers are the three other schools who seem to be trending the highest, along with Wisconsin, for Berger. He has said that he will be announcing his commitment on Jan. 4th.

Football offers

• 2021 4-star S Hunter Wohler (Muskego) continues to get offers from Power-5 schools. His latest is from the Ramblin’ Wreck of Georgia Tech.

Basketball recruiting update

• 2023 in-state hoops recruit Gus Yalden (Appleton) received his first offer this week from Utah. Yalden is a 6-foot-6 freshman that should be very high on Wisconsin’s list once his cycle gets in high gear.

• 2021 4-star SG Julian Roper (Franklin, Mich.) will be taking his official visit to Madison over the weekend. He is planning on attending the hoops game against Eastern Illinois on Friday night and then will take in the football game against Iowa on Saturday afternoon.

Roper is seen as a strong Wisconsin lean and with scholarships in the 2021 class already at a premium he might be ready to help fire the ‘CROOTIN CANNONS sooner rather than later. Northwestern and Alabama appear to be the other two schools that are recruiting Roper heavily, since the two Michigan schools seem fine with letting him leave the state.

We’ll keep you posted on how Roper’s visit goes and, obviously, we’ll have posts for you if he commits.